Tuesday, May 26, 2009

With both the Red Wings and Pens on the verge of closing out their respective Conference Finals, the NHL is in a bit of a pickle. The current Finals schedule is set to start on Friday, June 5th, and if both teams finish off their respective series, the two wouldn't play for over a week. With that taken into account, the NHL is considering a move up. Via Associated Content....

As it looks now, the Red Wings and Penguins could both wrap up berths in the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals within two days. The Penguins can finish a sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes tonight, with the Red Wings set to close out the Chicago Blackhawks in five tomorrow.

The start date of the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals schedule was set for Friday, June 5, since both the Eastern and Western Conference Finals would not end in a sweep. But if nothing changes in the Stanley Cup Finals schedule, and both the Red Wings and Penguins win their next game, they will not play each other for over a week.

For teams that have a long rest going into the championship series, they face constant, incessant questions about being off too long. The Phillies got this question before the World Series last year, but still handled the Tampa Bay Rays in five.

Both the Red Wings and Penguins could face those questions when they finally start the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals schedule. As usual, the needs of television would get the blame, as NBC and Versus need to set the Stanley Cup Finals dates on specific nights. TV needs are also the reason that the first two games of the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals will take place on back-to-back nights.

But in this case, a week plus layoff for the Red Wings and Penguins may be pushing it. So the NHL and NBC are set to save face, assuming the Red Wings and Penguins do win their next games.

The rumored start day would be this Saturday if both teams win, with the Red Wings hosting Game One, and Game Two would follow on Sunday. It seems like a great idea, and when you consider sweeps week is coming up, and the launch of the new Tonight Show with Conan limits late night NBC placement of games.

NBC's excuses are a crock of sh*t. They rival the "poker gets better ratings" garbage from the WWL (alleged). Conan on the Tonight has been known for about a year, and you schedule on the same nights you may be hosting a sporting event ? Idiots.

And Pre-Bettman the first 2 games were played on back to back nights with a travel day in between and then 2 more back-to-backs, for the first two rounds. the Schedule was more flexible without set start dates for series until very close to the start of series.